Gold

Gold is the in-game currency of League of Legends. It is used to buy items in the shop that provide champions with bonus stats and abilities, which in turn is one of the main ways for champions to increase their power over the course of a game.

At the beginning of the game, champions are given starting gold based on the map being played on, and can receive more gold through various means. Actively, champions acquire gold through last hittingminions and monsters, destroying enemy turrets, and killing enemy champions (or assisting in kills). Champions also passively generate gold, which can be increased by runes, masteries, and items. Passive gold gain does not activate until minions spawn.

Passive Gold Gain

Gold earned automatically, without requiring direct action from the player, is considered passive gold gain. It is typically quantified in terms of the amount of gold gained over 10 seconds ("gold per 10" for short). Passive gold gain can be increased by runes, masteries, and gold-generating items.

Base Gold Generation

Every champion passively generates gold at a rate that varies from map to map. This gold gain does not begin until minions spawn (or on Crystal Scar, at 1:30).

Active Gold Gain

Gold that is earned through direct action from the player is considered active gold gain. It can be increased by runes, masteries, and items.

Killing Minions, Monsters, and Pets

Gold can be earned by dealing the killing blow ("last hit") to enemy minions and neutral monsters.

The gold earned from minion kills is dependent on the game time. As the game progresses, each minion is worth more.

The gold earned from neutral monsters also increases over time, depending on when the monsters were spawned. In addition, the largest monster in a minor camp will slowly increase its gold value to a modest cap after approximately two minutes.

Champion Kills and Assists

Gold can be earned by killing enemy champions. The gold gain associated with a champion kill is determined by how many kills the slain champion has recently accumulated (champions that have killed many enemies without dying are worth more gold). When a champion is killed, the bounty ranges from 15 to 500 gold[1].

The last hitter always receives 100% of the value of the bounty.

An extra 50% of the value of the bounty is put into a gold pool. This pool is split equally among all champions who assisted in the kill in the past 10 seconds (either by damaging or debuffing the slain champion, or by healing or buffing the killing champion). If there are no assists, this pool is lost.

An extra 100 gold is earned for getting First Blood, the first kill in a game.

Destroying Structures

Whenever an enemy turret is destroyed, every team member receives between 100 and 175 gold. Members who contributed to the turret kill split an additional 0 (Inhibitor/Nexus Turrets) to 150 (Outer Turrets) gold.

Destroying an inhibitor or nexus grants the player 50 gold, but the latter is irrelevant as it also causes the game to end.

Destroying Wards

Destroying a Sight Ward or a Vision Ward will grant the player 15 gold. An additional 15 gold is granted to the champion who provided true sight to reveal the ward, if necessary. This means that revealing and destroying a ward grants a player 30 gold in total.

Items

Spoils of War

Spoils of war is a unique passive ability. It reads: Basic melee attacks deal 200 bonus true damage to minions with less than 200 health, consuming a charge. Whenever a minion is killed by Spoils of War, the nearest allied champion is healed for 2% of your maximum health and gains gold equal to the kill. Requires a nearby allied champion.

Seizing Capture Points (Crystal Scar Only)

Players gain 100 gold for neutralizing a point, and 100 gold for capturing a point. This number is dependent on the number of champions involved in the capture of a point: two champions will each gain 75 gold, and three champions will each gain 63 gold.